Doctor's Delight (7 page)

“He was on his
way to meet you, the traffic was quite heavy, his flat mate said he
got notice about ten forty-five.”

Oh no! This was
not happening!

“Ms Jones? Ms
Jones, I can reschedule you with another escort, I—”

“No,” Cherry
said shakily. “No, I’ll ring you when I want another appointment.”
Like never.

“Very well, but
let me assure you—” Helen’s voice was cut off as Cherry snapped the
phone shut.

Taking deep
breaths, she turned it off completely and laid it down beside her
handbag.

“Cherry?” Susie
called. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh boy.”

“What’s
happened?” Maxie half stood worriedly. “Tell us.”

Turning slowly,
Cherry walked back to the table, sat down, and swallowed half the
Diet Coke in several big gulps. Placing the can back down on the
table in precise movements, she met the eyes of her friends’ in
turn.

Susie and Maxie
gazed back at her worriedly.

“Damien,”
Cherry said slowly, “Is in hospital.”

“He had an
accident on the way home?” Maxie asked.

“On the way to
our appointment, actually.”

Confused, Maxie
frowned. “But how..?”

Susie sucked in
a breath. “If Damien was in an accident on the way to you but was
taken to hospital, then…?”

“Then who the
hell did I have sex with last night?” Cherry clapped her hand over
her eyes. “Oh my God! I didn’t sleep with a male prostitute, I
slept with a bloody complete
stranger
!”

Dumbfounded,
Maxie and Susie looked at each other then back at Cherry.

“Shit,” said
Maxie. “How much did it cost to sleep with a stranger?”

“Not the right
time for that,” Susie cut in hastily.

“Four hundred
dollars,” Cherry moaned. “I paid a complete stranger, who wasn’t a
prostitute, four hundred dollars to have sex with me. Oh God, no
wonder he said someone named Tim had mentioned a surprise!”

“A what?” Maxie
was still grappling with the appalling news.

“He mentioned
someone named Tim said he had a surprise for him – Damien, whatever
the hell his real name is – and I didn’t cotton on – oh my God!
Susie!” Cherry almost wailed. “I slept with someone who didn’t have
a health check for all I know! Susie!”

“Calm down.”
Susie hurried around the table to rub Cherry’s back. “Did he use a
condom? Tell me.”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re
probably okay.”

“Probably?”

“Now calm down.
This isn’t so bad, this—”

“Who the hell
did I have sex with?” Cherry looked up at her friend. “Susie, who
did I have sex with!”

~*~

“Who the hell
did I sleep with?” Rick demanded.

Tim looked up
from where he was examining the small terrier. “No idea. But she
sounds hot.” He grinned.

“This is no
laughing matter, Tim.”

Rick watched as
his friend placed the stethoscope on the bench and carried the dog
across to one of the wire cages to place it carefully inside.

Tim marked
something off on the chart on front of the cage. “You have to
admit, it’s a nice fantasy come to life.”

“What?”

“You know.
Mysterious woman.” Tim turned around and moved his hands in an
hour-glass shape pattern. “Va-va-voom curves. Virgin.” His gaze
turned thoughtful. “Kind of hard to find nowadays, actually. Didn’t
think there were any virgins left.”

“There’s one
less now,” Rick snapped.

Tim
guffawed.

Rick rubbed his
brow. “You’re sure you don’t know her?”

“Absolutely no
idea. My surprise was you finding that packet of glow-in-the-dark
condoms that must have fallen out of my pocket and into your car,
not a luscious chick.” Taking pity on his friend, Tim gestured to
him. “Come back to my office for a coffee.”

“I don’t think
coffee is going to fix this.”

“Can’t have
booze, I’m afraid. I’m on call tonight as well.” Tim winked. “Can’t
all have wild nights with a mysterious woman.”

Rick followed
him moodily, throwing himself into one of the big chairs and
swivelling back and forth in it while watching Tim pour the
coffee.

“You’re in a
real knot over this.” Tim spooned sugar into both cups. “It’s not
like you haven’t bedded women before.”

“I knew them, I
chose them. This Molly Jones—”

“Fake name,”
Tim said.

A muscle ticked
in Rick’s jaw. “Possibly. There was a Molly Jones booked into room
six.”

“Which wasn’t
your room, as you found out.”

“But there was
no phone number supplied and she paid for the room in cash.”

“Tried the
phone book?”

“In a small
city this size, there are amazingly few Molly Jones. None of them
was the woman I slept with.”

“How do you
know that? Did you visit them all?”

Rick felt the
familiar frustration well up inside him. “One was an elderly woman,
another was a child, and the third was a woman with what sounded
like fifty thousand kids screaming and crying in the background who
assured me that after what she was enduring, she’d cut off any
man’s dick rather than risk becoming pregnant yet again, and then
she hung up on me. It’s a safe bet none of those three were the
Molly Jones I met last night.”

“Fake name.”
Tim handed Rick the cup of coffee and went behind the desk to kick
back in the chair, lifting his legs to cross his ankles and rest
his heels on the desktop. “My friend, there are thirty thousand
people living in this city. Finding her will be like finding a
needle in the proverbial haystack.”

Didn’t Rick
know that. Moodily, he contemplated the dark surface of the
coffee.

“Oh ho!”

He looked
up.

Tim was eyeing
at him in astonishment. “You really do want to find her.”

“Hell yes. I
want to know why she let a perfect stranger have sex with her.”

“Why worry? You
had a great time.”

“How would you
know?”

“Otherwise you
wouldn’t be in such knots about it.” Tim took a mouthful of coffee.
“Just let it go, Rick. You had a great night, count yourself lucky
she isn’t hanging on your pants belt salivating at having possibly
caught herself a rich doctor, and enjoy the memory. And get on with
things.”

“Your mother
really did a number on you, didn’t she?”

“My mother,
Rick, is a bitch, as you very well know.”

“Not all women
are the same.”

“Annabelle.”

Rick couldn’t
suppress a shudder.

“Love ‘em and
leave ‘em, my friend. That’s my advice.”

“Your advice is
the worst. But you’re right, finding her will be almost
impossible.” Sighing, Rick leaned back in the chair and closed his
eyes, inhaling the fragrance of expensive coffee.

“Glad you
agree. Now what are you doing tomorrow?”

“Rounds at the
hospital.”

“Exciting. Lots
of nurses there.” Tim waggled his eyebrows. “And you know what they
say about nurses.”

“Urban myth, my
friend. And that I do know.”

“Yeah.” Tim
sighed. “Damn it.”

Rick shook his
head. “You need to find yourself a wife.”

“Not bloody
likely.” Tim’s face was serious. “She’d have to be pretty damned
special – exceptional, in fact – for me to even contemplate
it.”

Rick studied
his friend. Tim’s experiences with women hadn’t been good, and
topping that list was his cold-blooded mother, followed by several
grasping, greedy dates arranged by his mother when younger. Now Tim
really did love ‘em and leave ‘em.

But Rick wasn’t
like that, he wanted a special woman. He just hadn’t met the right
one yet, and the voluptuous female from last night who allowed a
stranger to have sex with her without even knowing his name
certainly wouldn’t be suitable. So better to forget abut her and
concentrate on establishing himself in the practice, and perhaps
finding the right woman later on, the special woman who would be
his wife and companion for the rest of his life.

And the
voluptuous woman wasn’t that one, even if he could find her. Which
he wouldn’t, because he wasn’t even going to try.

Rick joined Tim
in moody silence.

Chapter
Four

Her shirt
clingingly wetly to her stomach and shoulder, Cherry made her way
back to the nurses’ station. Maxie looked up and started
laughing.

“Not funny,”
Cherry said. “I should have known better than to let Mrs Gumfrey
hold the shower hose.”

“Whatever were
you thinking?”

“Obviously
nothing intelligent.” Rounding the bench to stand behind it, Cherry
took several tissues and wiped the side of her face.

“Other things
on your mind?”

“No.”

“Huh.”

“There’s no
‘huh’ about it.” Cherry noticed the file before Maxie. “What’s
happening?”

“The new doctor
is coming in to review Leo.”

“What’s he
like?”

“Demented,
angry, and non-cooperative.”

“Not Leo, you
ninny. The new doctor.”

“Never met him
before.” Maxie glanced up as Susie stopped by the desk. “You look
pleased.”

“The new
doctor.” Susie fanned her face. “What a dish. I could lick him
right up.”

Cherry rolled
her eyes.

“He’s coming
down the corridor now.”

Busy trying to
absorb some of the water from her shirt with the tissues, Cherry
only glanced up briefly when Susie and Maxie both sighed dreamily,
but the sight was enough to make her freeze.

The man
standing and talking to another doctor had only his silhouette
visible, but it was like time had gone rushing backwards and she
was back in the motel, looking out the window.
Slightly
dishevelled black hair that came down to his collar, a hank of it
hanging rakishly over his forehead. A straight, autocratic
nose
. He turned face-on and started to stride towards the
nurses’ station, his gaze only briefly passing over the nurses
standing and sitting there, and she saw
bright green eyes and a
mouth that was full enough to be sensuous without being feminine. A
strong jaw line
.

“
Oh
shit!”
Heart thundering, she dropped to her hands and knees
behind the desk.

Maxie gaped
down at her.

Gesturing
wildly to her to stay quiet, Cherry reached up with one hand,
grabbed the file, shoved it into Maxie’s slack grip and flapped her
hand at her in a desperate signal to stand up.

Eyes wide, but
understanding that something was wrong, Maxie stood up and leaned
over the desk, placing the file on the top of it so the new doctor
could take it, read the notes and write his spiel in it without
having to come around the desk.

Obviously
cottoning on pretty quickly that something was going on, Susie
waylaid the other doctor before he could move around behind the
desk.

Biting her
bottom lip, Cherry could barely control her trembling fingers. The
new doctor was the same man with whom she’d had sex! The stranger
who’d taken her virginity and shown her a hot time, and how amazing
sex could be!

He was the new
doctor!

Oh my God! How
much worse could things get?

The pleasant
tone of his voice was the same, and she could shut her eyes and
almost imagine that voice sweeping through her senses, his warm
breath on her nape, those skilled fingers trailing down her arm –
shit, no wonder they were skilled fingers - he was a doctor.

A doctor who
came to the private hospital in which she worked. She was so
screwed. So royally, majorly screwed.

Wringing her
hands, she listened as Maxie spoke to the doctor, and then she
heard him introduce himself to Maxie.

Rick Reed. Not
a Damien, never a Damien, but Rick Reed.

She listened as
he gave a last few instructions before walking away. She knew
exactly when the coast was clear because a concerned Maxie squatted
down beside her. “Cherry?”

“What the hell
was all that about?” Susie demanded, coming around the other side
of the desk.

“That was him,”
Cherry hissed.

“Him who?”

“Him. The
not-Damien. That was
him
.”

“The
not-Damien? What are you…” Susie’s eyes widened. “Him? The new GP?
That was him?”

“Rick Reed was
the man you had sex with?” Maxie’s mouth fell open. “Him?”

“Yes! Oh my
God, what if he recognizes me?” Grabbing a fistful of Maxie’s
shirt, Cherry yanked her forward. “What then?”

“Get up, you
two.” Susie nudged her with the toe of her shoe. “The Nurse Manager
is heading this way. We’ll sort this out later.”

They both
scrambled to their feet.

Cherry had no
idea how she managed to get through the rest of the shift without
falling apart, but finally it was home time. She managed to make it
out the door by herself, but Maxie and Susie caught up to her in
the car park.

“Curtis’s
Coffee Café.” Susie overrode Cherry’s protests. “We need
sugar-laden food and drink to absorb all this.”

“Why do you
need it?” Cherry asked. “I’m the one who bedded the good
doctor.”

“Good point,”
Maxie agreed. “But not good enough. Let’s go.”

Curtis’s Coffee
Café was situated in the main mall and as usual it was busy.
Popular for its cakes and creamy drinks, they were lucky to find a
table near a window. The harried waitress came and took their
orders.

Once she’d
left, Susie looked across the table at Cherry. “So. Rick Reed,
local GP.”

“Shit.”

“He’s a hunk,
I’ll give you that. I had no idea.”

“You think I
did? Susie, I thought he was Damien!”

“Who he
wasn’t,” Maxie pointed out. “But at least you now know who you went
to bed with, right?”

“Yet somehow
that doesn’t make it any better.” Dropping her forehead into her
hands, Cherry moaned. “How am I going to face him? What if he
recognizes me?”